Case Number 20370: Small Claims Court

Turning Green

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All Rise...

Judge David Johnson turned green last night. It was an allergic reaction to ham.

The Charge

The hard business of growing up.

The Case

From the 2005 vault, Image has unearthed this dark comedy about a horny
teenage boy named James, trapped in Ireland and desperately trying to get back
to New York City. Through a series of circumstances, he hooks up with the local
scumbags, gamblers, crimelords, and smirking a-holes who populate these macabre
endeavors.

James cuts his teeth running errands for these guys, before conjuring up his
own tasty underground market: the distribution of nudie magazines to the
sex-starved denizens of the community. While a big hit with the local
population, James's entrepreneurship rubs the motley crew he's been hanging with
the wrong way and hard lessons are in store.

Turning Green is something of a thematic oddity. It has the look and
feel of an edgy coming-of-age saga (and really, that's what it is), but there's
a pervasive comedic tone that leads to a bit of gender confusion. While I
enjoyed the film and would endorse the effort to those looking for a stylish
slice of period Irish-flavored tomfoolery (set in the 1970s), the schizophrenic
nature of its tone could be off-putting.

Also, James (Donal Gallery)—tasked with the heavy character
lifting—is dull. As far as I can tell, his primary goal in life is to
masturbate as often as possible, which makes him more than qualified for getting
in the pornography business, but renders him half a loaf of sleazy.

On the more serious side of things, the stuff with the gangsters is
well-realized with some nice work from Timothy Hutton (Leverage) and the underused Alessandro
Nivola (Howl). There's a hard-edged payoff
at the end, running counter to the sometimes whimsical nature of the
hapless-kid-with-the-huge-libido-trying-to-score-a-date-with-the-pretty-redhead-while-watching-over-his-spunky-little-brother.
But that's the weirdness of Turning Green.

If you don't mind the tonal shifts, there's some value here. And the Irish
accents are endlessly entertaining, especially as generated by actors who aren't
Irish.